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The tech industry long has realized that it has an issue with gender diversity. But cracking the challenge of getting more women into the sector seems as elusive as ever. It’s not because the tech sector has not tried. Ask most companies today and they will tell you that gender diversity is important to them, and that they’re busily seeking to hire more women for tech roles.
Yet the gender imbalance is getting worse, not better. New research from Accenture and Girls Who Code reveals that the percentage of tech workers who were women in 1984 (35 percent) was actually higher than it is today (32 percent).
At a time when the tech sector is crying out for skilled people, we seem to be going backwards on tapping a huge pool of talent and ideas. As long as this persists, tech companies will struggle to build products that truly appeal to women, and the problems with associated biases likely will be exacerbated.
A Troubling Disconnect
What’s going wrong? One of the issues seems to be a disconnect between the perceptions of senior HR leaders and the lived experiences of their female workers. According to our research, while more than three-quarters of senior HR leaders say their company culture empowers women to be successful in technology roles, only about half of the women workers we surveyed feel the same.
Similarly, HR leaders tend to think the culture in their organization is more supportive of women than it actually is. At 45 percent, they’re twice as likely as women themselves (at 21 percent) to say it’s “easy for women to thrive in tech.”
But perhaps the most troubling disconnect comes to perceptions around inclusivity. Only 38 percent of HR leaders identify building a more inclusive culture as an effective means to retain and advance women in technology roles. Yet women who leave tech roles in the workforce, or who are likely to leave in the near future, identify a non-inclusive company culture as the most frequently cited reason they leave or plan to leave (selected by 37 percent of respondents). It’s little wonder that 50 percent of women in tech roles have quit by the time they’re 35.
What Makes for Inclusivity?
It’s clear from these findings that much work needs to be done on building inclusivity in the tech sector. The first step is to define exactly what “inclusivity” means in the working environment. Three years’ worth of research covering more than 70,000 workers globally has helped us identify three core components to what makes a workplace inclusive:
1. A diverse leadership team that provides role models and publishes targets.
2. Policies and practices designed to level the playing field for women.
3. Employees are treated like humans; diversity and individuality are actively encouraged, and employees are given flexibility and control over how, when, and where they work.
We found that companies defined as inclusive deliver exponentially more rewarding experiences for their female workforce. For example, 85 percent of women at more inclusive companies say they love their jobs compared to just 28 percent at less inclusive companies. Sixty-six percent of the women we spoke to from more inclusive workplaces said they’d been promoted compared to 42 percent at less inclusive workplaces. Women clearly thrive in companies that are truly inclusive, and are much more likely to stay in their jobs.
Boosting Women in Tech
What would happen if more companies adopted the inclusive practices of businesses that lead in this area? Our analysis suggests that nationwide adoption of five cultural practices could help retain a staggering 1.4 million young women in tech roles by 2030. For me, the first two report recommendations intersect with my career and passions:
- Let Both Parents Parent. Beyond having maternity and paternity policies in place, make sure women and men are encouraged to take leave and that they see senior leaders doing the same thing. I left a senior tech leadership role in the middle of my career to stay home with my daughter and care for my newborn adopted son, and when I went back to work, my husband too paternity leave. This was a great experience for both of us, and I became a much better leader after being humbled by being a parent.
- Make It a Metric. I also feel that my parenting career break made me a better role model for my kids and for the next generation for women in tech. Having role models to look up to at work is vital for encouraging women into the sector. Companies, therefore, should set targets/goals for diversity in the leadership team. These should be published to hold leaders accountable and could even be used as key performance indicators (KPIs) to govern executive compensation/reward decisions.
While these first recommendations have particular resonance for me, the other three are equally valid and will have an important role to play in making the workplace more equitable:
- Send Reinforcements. Providing women with targeted workplace support such as mentors, sponsors, and employee resource networks help compensate for an uneven playing field.
- Encode Creativity. Environments in which employees are rewarded for creativity and innovation (which we define as creating new markets, experiences, products, services, content, or processes) would appeal to many women.
- Meet on Their Terms. Scheduling more inclusive events during working hours would enable those with other commitments to attend and could boost women’s aspirations while making them feel they belong.
Much of this work requires cultural change and training. But there are also a range of technologies to help businesses adopt these practices and thereby create, sustain, and track a more inclusive culture. Technology vendors, for example, can help by providing a foundation of best practices content and reports that help their enterprise customers see the diversity and representation of their workforce in one centralized place. These technology enablers can help embed policy changes in the day-to-day operations of a business.
Change Starts Here
Improving gender diversity in the tech sector needs to happen fast. The problem has already taken far too long to solve. People are missing out on rewarding careers and businesses are losing out on talent. The U.S. economy desperately needs skilled technologists to ensure strong growth in the future and to maintain our global technology leadership.
Having balanced my 30-plus-year technology career and focus on parenting and family, I couldn’t be a bigger advocate for the recommendations outlined in the joint report. We now know how this problem can be solved: through inclusive cultures. Building cultures that make women feel encouraged, safe, and free to be creative now should be a top priority for all HR leaders. Those who do it first will have the pick of the talent.
Gloria Samuels leads the Workday Business Group at Accenture. She is focused on driving sustainable growth and value-led transformation for clients with Workday by bringing together strategy and consulting, industry, innovation, markets, talent, and Accenture’s global delivery and thought leadership capabilities. Samuels is also a member of Accenture’s Global Technology Management Committee.